Surinam

After unsuccessful attempts by the Spaniards and Dutch to colonize the regions along the Surinam River, English entrepreneurs from Barbados succeeded in founding several plantations after 1650. During the Second Anglo-Dutch War, the Dutch admiral Abram (Abraham) Crijnssen (d. 1669) conquered the colony, which was ceded by the English in the Treaty of Bredain 1667, under which the Dutch handed over their colony of New Amsterdam (New York) to England. The Surinam colony was governed by the West India Company. Sugar and coffee plantations were founded, and as else where in the Americas, black slaves were imported from Africa. In 1863, slaverywas abolished in Surinam, freeing some 30,000 slaves. Economic historians have concluded that the colony never was prof itable for the investors in the Republic. In 1975, Surinam became an independent state. The official language is Dutch, but there are some 20 languages spoken by different groups of the population (e.g., Hin dustani, Creole, Javanese, and African languages).